Multimedia service system based on user history

ABSTRACT

Disclosed is a user history based multimedia service system, wherein user history data include a multimedia consumption type and/or consumption behavior of the user. The consumption type data includes a start time or end time of the multimedia content consumption (i.e., simple view data), content recording time and format, content backup time and format, and content transfer time and format. The consumption behavior data includes a content access/play data such as a normal finish, skimmed, skipped, slowed, or replay, and a stopped data of the content access/play. The consumption type or consumption behavior data include information on program identification and information on access to the consumption type/consumption behavior data. The respective data is provided for each user and program.

This application is a Continuation of prior application Ser. No.09/903,650, filed Jul. 31, 2001, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,712,113 which ishereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a multimedia service system and moreparticularly, to a user history based multimedia service system forproviding user-oriented multimedia service, and a method forincorporating user history data for the history based multimediaservice.

2. Description of the Related Art

Recently, as various attempts to provide user-oriented multimediaservices are actively made in multimedia service systems, varioustechniques of observing the user's multimedia consumption pattern andreflecting user preferences on the multimedia service.

Also, as the digital broadcasts have been started, additional functionsusing the user preferences have been introduced as a very importantfactor.

For instance, in providing a help function to users, is a technique ofproviding a user interface suitable for each user using a usage historydescribing what items the user mainly searches in ordinarycircumstances.

According to this technique, if a portion of the multimedia has a lowlevel as compared to a tree structure, but it is frequently searched bythe user, its level is adjusted to be a higher level, and thus itshortens a path for searching the desired portion.

As another conventional technique, there is a method of defining a userfunction. This technique provides a user-oriented interface by settingfunctions of respective buttons to those desired by the user when agraphic user interface is used.

Still another conventional technique proposes a multimedia search anddisplay method, which extracts user preferences using the user historyinformation of the multimedia content consumption, and reflects thisuser preference information on the multimedia search and display.

For instance, a user's display operation such as ‘replay’, ‘fastforward’, etc., has been recorded, and the user preference scores aredescribed for each segment of the multimedia content. This userpreference information is then reflected on the multimedia display toprovide an intelligent display function.

This method enables the display control operation reflecting the userpreference by considering a section where the ‘replay’ operationfrequently occurs as a more important segment and displaying the sectionmore slowly when searching the section.

Still another conventional technique records a “device information” suchas user's preferred channel and sound level (i.e., volume) for eachchannel and so on, and provides a viewing environment suitable for theuser using the recorded preferred channel and sound level information.

Still another conventional technique proposes a method that does nottransfer massive program guides as they are, but provides the programguides based on the user preferred program genre.

The user preference for such a program genre is determined by recordingthe user's ordinary viewing content and extracting a user's habittherefrom.

Still another conventional technique proposes a system for automaticallyselecting a user preferred program using a user's multimedia viewinghistory, and recording the selected program.

This kind of user-oriented service has already been commercialized by‘Tivo’ in the United States.

Recently, a smart card has been introduced to provide more user-orientedservice, other than server-oriented or device-oriented condition.

For example, a method for recording the user preference information in asmart card, and consistently providing the user-dependent servicewithout being affected by the server or device has been proposed.

In the meantime, most of the useful functions as described above areperformed based upon the history record of the user's consumption of themultimedia content.

That is, the preference information is extracted by checking the user'smultimedia content consumption and recording the pattern or habit of theuser by a numerical value.

In case of recording the user's consumption pattern by the numericalvalue as described above, whole history from a time point when the userstarted the consumption through the present should be reflected.

However, expressing the user history by only a specified numeral valuehas limitations in reflecting the user history for a certain period ofrecent.

Also, under certain circumstances, a sequential history itself may beused. In this case, there is a problem that a series of records for thesequential consumption should be preserved in the form of a list.

This method is the same as that of a history used in the existingInternet browser such as ‘Netscape’ and so on.

The history of the ‘Netscape’ can preserve its record by arrangingaddresses of the consumed multimedia contents, i.e., documents.

However, it is desirable that the history information for theabove-described purpose should describe additional feature informationsuch as metadata of the consumed multimedia content as well aspositional information of the multimedia content.

For example, in case of the record using a moving picture, not only theposition and title of the corresponding moving picture but also variousfeature information of the moving picture such as a genre,actor/actress, director, etc., should be described to extract the userpreference information by reflecting such information.

In order to describe all the information as described above in thehistory list, however, the waste of space becomes severe due to theduplicated information, and thus it is difficult to manage suchinformation in a storage medium of a limited-capacity such as the smartcard.

Also, as the amount of content to be once recorded becomes larger, thecontent accessing speed becomes lower.

Accordingly, in the next-generation multimedia-related applicationswhere the feature information such as the metadata other than thecontent is considered as important factors, more effective contentstructure and its management method are required to effectively managesuch feature information as the history data.

In the meantime, in order to provide the effective user-oriented serviceas described above, the history should include all the metadata, user'sconsumption pattern, etc., or should be easily accessed to the storagemedium.

Also, as the protection of the intellectual property right of thecontent is regarded as an important issue, a technique that can keep thepredetermined method and number of consumption is required whenrespective multimedia contents are provided.

The conventional techniques are dependent upon the multimedia contentwhen the multimedia service is performed based on the user historyand/or user preference.

For example, they provide the service in a manner that in case of themoving picture service, they obtain weighted values of the userpreferred genre, director, actor/actress, program, etc. of the contentas the preference information, and reflect the preference information onthe next moving picture service, so that the search of the userpreferred genre, director, actor/actress, program, etc. can be easilyperformed when the moving picture is searched. This is just thepreference information dependent upon only the attribute of themultimedia content itself.

However, it is doubtful that only the multimedia-content-dependentelements are to be considered when the user receives the above-describedmultimedia service. That is because every user has a differentconsumption pattern or habit as a natural person, and a differentconsumption type even with respect to the same multimedia service.

For instance, assuming that a user views a movie using an on-linemultimedia service, the conventional technique merely establishes thehistory information dependent upon the multimedia content, for example,of which genre the movie is, who the director is, who appear asactors/actresses, etc.

However, the user may simply view the multimedia content (i.e., themovie), record (backup) the content in a storage medium such as a videotape, or transfer the content to another place using a network. This issubject to the consumption type, i.e., how the user consumes theprovided multimedia content, and is not dependent upon the attribute ofthe multimedia content at all, but is just dependent upon the user'shuman nature.

Also, the user may change his/her behavior in accessing/viewing thecontent such as a slowed view of a concerned portion, skimmed view orskipped view of an unconcerned portion, etc. This is subject to theconsumption behavior, i.e., on what behavior the user consumes theprovided multimedia content, and is not dependent upon the attribute ofthe multimedia content at all, but is just dependent upon the user'shuman nature.

However, according to the conventional multimedia content servicetechniques based on the user history, the history information isestablished only for the elements dependent upon the multimedia contentwithout considering above described points.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, an object of the invention is to solve the above problemsand/or disadvantages and to provide at least the advantages describedhereinafter.

An object of the present invention is to provide a user history basedmultimedia service system for providing more user-oriented multimediaservice by reflecting user history data.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a user historybased multimedia service system that can extract a user preference forthe multimedia content using user history data.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a userhistory based multimedia service system that can perform controloperations such as restriction, prohibition, permission, etc., foraccess to the multimedia content using user history data and protectintellectual property right on the multimedia content.

Further object of the present invention is to provide various userhistory data for user-oriented multimedia service.

Still further object of the present invention is to provide an effectivemethod for incorporating user history data that can store various userhistory data in limited storage space.

In one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user historybased multimedia service system for providing user-oriented multimediacontent service, wherein the system provides the multimedia content to aclient, records a user consumption pattern corresponding to the providedmultimedia content, and controls a multimedia content service based onthe recorded user consumption pattern.

The present invention provides user history data that describes a user'sconsumption pattern corresponding to a multimedia content provided by acontent provider (i.e., server).

The user history data describing the user's consumption pattern includesa consumption type or a consumption behavior corresponding to theprovided multimedia content.

The user history data describing the user's consumption pattern is usedfor extracting user preference data corresponding to the providedmultimedia content, or protecting intellectual property rights withrespect to consumption of the provided multimedia content.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a userhistory based multimedia service system comprising a user historystorage device for storing a consumption type and/or a consumptionbehavior of a multimedia content, and a control means for controllingoperations such as restriction, prohibition, permission, billing, etc.,on the consumption of the multimedia content using consumption type dataand/or consumption behavior data stored in the user history storagedevice.

In still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided auser history based multimedia service system comprising a user historystorage device for storing a consumption type and/or a consumptionbehavior of a multimedia content, and a means for extracting userpreference data on the consumption of the multimedia content using thethe consumption type data and/or consumption behavior data stored in theuser history storage device.

In still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided amethod for incorporating user history data comprising assigning acontent reference for accessing a content or metadata of the content,and recording a user consumption pattern (i.e., consumption type and/orconsumption behavior) of the content.

In the present invention, the consumption type is at least one of asimple view for one time accessing/viewing of the multimedia content,storage (i.e., recording/backup) of the content, and transfer of thecontent through a network.

In extracting user preference from consumption types of a simple view,recording, backup, and transfer, higher preference is assigned to aconsumption type of higher consumption frequency, while lower preferenceis assigned to a consumption type of lower consumption frequency.

In extracting user preference from consumption types of a simple view,recording, backup, and transfer, higher preference is assigned to amultimedia content of higher consumption frequency, while lowerpreference is assigned to the multimedia content of lower consumptionfrequency.

In the present invention, the consumption behavior is at least oneoperation of a normal finish, skimming, replay, skipping, slow play, andstop.

In extracting user preference from consumption behavior data, higherpreference is assigned to a section described as the skimmed or skipped,while lower preference is assigned to a section described as the replayor slowed.

In the present invention, the user history storage device is a movablestorage medium such as a smart card.

In the present invention, the user history data further includesinformation representing whether the consumption type and/or consumptionbehavior has been automatically updated.

In the present invention, the user history data further includesinformation for permitting, prohibiting, or restricting an access to thestored data.

In the present invention, intellectual property rights on the multimediacontent can be protected by control operations such as restriction(i.e., prohibition, partial permission, or full permission) or billingfor consumption of the multimedia content by comparing the data recordedin the user history with a predetermined condition for consumption ofthe multimedia content provided to the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described in detail with reference to thefollowing drawings in which like reference numerals refer to likeelements wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary view illustrating a user history data structureaccording to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is an exemplary view illustrating a method for incorporating auser history data according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating the user history data of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2as an XML schema; and

FIG. 4 is an exemplary view illustrating a method of protectingintellectual property rights using the user history data according tothe present invention.

FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary movable storage medium for storingconsumption history.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will bedescribed in detail.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a user history data structure according tothe present invention. FIG. 2 shows an example of the consumption typeand consumption behavior expressed in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 shows an XML schemarepresentation of the user history data of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2.

A multimedia content server (i.e., provider) provides a multimediacontent to a client (i.e., user) through a medium such as a network. Areceiving device, which received the multimedia content, reproduces anddisplays the multimedia content data, and using a user interface itperforms a content processing for the consumption type or consumptionbehavior desired by the user. At this time, as shown in FIG. 5, thehistory 510 of the consumption type or consumption behavior is recordedin a movable storage medium 500, such as a smart card.

The user history according to the present invention includes userinformation 100 for describing that this data is of a specified user,user history description information 101 for describing that thisinformation is for describing a history for each user, a consumptiontype data 102 for describing the user's consumption type for theprovided multimedia content, and a consumption behavior data 103 fordescribing the user's consumption behavior for the provided multimediacontent.

Also, the user history according to the present invention furtherincludes an automatic update flag 101 a for setting whether toautomatically update the history of each user.

If the automatic update flag 101 a is set to ‘automatic update’, theconsumption details are automatically updated whenever the user consumesthe multimedia content.

The consumption type data 102 includes a simple view data 104, recordingdata 105, backup data 106, transfer data 107, program identifier 108 asa content reference, and a data protection flag 109 for describingwhether to protect the consumption type data.

The consumption type data 102 may be created for each multimediacontent, and a user may have a plurality of different data structures onits lower layer. The program identifier 108 is given for each content,and the data protection flag 109 is given for each content or for thewhole history for each user.

The simple view data 104, recording data 105, backup data 106, andtransfer data 107 may be created whenever the consumption type isproduced, and recorded as a plurality of data structures for eachcontent.

The consumption behavior data 103 includes a normal finish data 110,skimmed data 111, skipped data 112, replay data 113, slow play data 114,stopped data 115, program identifier 116 as a content reference, and adata protection flag 117 for describing whether to protect theconsumption behavior data.

The consumption behavior data 103 may be created for each multimediacontent, and a user may have a plurality of different data structures onits lower layer. The program identifier 116 is given for each content,and the data protection flag 117 is given for each content or for thewhole history for each user.

The normal finish data 110, skimmed data 111, skipped data 112, replaydata 113, slow play data 114, and stopped data 115 may be createdwhenever the consumption behavior is produced, and recorded as aplurality of data structures for each content.

The user's consumption type is a kind of the user's consumption patternof the multimedia contents, and describes for what purpose the userconsumes the provided multimedia content.

The consumption type data 102 describes the occurrence time forconsumption of the multimedia content when the multimedia content isconsumed, and is used for protecting the intellectual property right ofthe content by comparing the consumption type consented between thecontent provider and the user with the consumption type data 102.

Specifically, the occurrence time for consumption of the multimediacontent is recorded in accordance with the consumption type such as thesimple view, recording, backup, transfer, etc., to recognize the number(i.e., frequency) of consumption for respective consumption type. If thepermitted number of consumption is restricted by any intellectualproperty for each consumption type, the user history is checked afterthe consumption is performed for the predetermined number of times torestrict an additional consumption, bill an additional charge, or permitthe additional consumption by payment of the additional charge.

Also, in case of an unallowable consumption type, i.e., in case that therecording is permitted, but the backup or transfer is not permitted, thebackup or transfer may be restricted.

The simple view data 104 is provided for the purpose of one time viewingof the multimedia content transferred in the form of broadcast or streamwithout storing the content for repeated viewing.

At this time, the content storage for supporting a function such as atemporary stop can occur, while the temporary storage performed underthe assumption that it is deleted after completion of viewing isincluded in the simple view operation.

As the simple view data 104, the time when the corresponding contentterminates or starts can be recorded.

The recording data 105 is provided for storing the multimedia content ina storage device of the receiver for the purpose of repeated viewingafter the multimedia content is received.

For example, when the simple view terminates in the receiver, it isdetermined whether to store the content. If the storage is not desired,the stored content is removed. If the storage is desired, the recordingis performed to store the content in a non-volatile storage device, andthe stored content is registered in a content list for management.

As the recording data 105, a recording time and a recording format canbe recorded.

The backup data 106 is provided for recording the received content orpre-stored content in a movable medium using an external storage deviceother than the receiver.

As the backup data 106, a backup time and a storage format can berecorded.

The transfer data 107 is provided for describing transfer of the storedcontent to an external third party using a network.

As the transfer data 107, a transfer time and a transfer format can berecorded.

In view of the intellectual property, the above-described operationssuch as the recording, backup, transfer, etc., have different meanings.Also, the quality of the multimedia content resulting from theoperations such as the recording, backup, transfer, etc., thecompression format or transfer format used during the backup ortransfer, and used parameters have various meanings.

For example, the multimedia content provider may not permit the storage,backup, or transfer of the same quality as the provided content, and incase of a moving picture such as a movie having a format that supportsonly limited level of the quality, the transfer or backup may bepermitted without any limitation. Thus, when the history for eachconsumption type is stored, it is necessary to store both the operationtime and the media-format-related information of the result ofoperation.

If there exists consumption type data of the content to be stored in thehistory and its corresponding consumption type restriction informationthat is consented by the provider, the receiver may restrict the user'sconsumption of the content by comparing the consumption type restrictioninformation with the consumption type data.

The above process will be explained later in detail with reference toFIG. 4.

Meanwhile, the user's consumption behavior is another kind of the user'sconsumption pattern of the multimedia contents, and describes how theuser consumes the provided multimedia content.

The consumption behavior for each portion of the multimedia content isrecorded when the user consumes the multimedia content, and the varioususer's preference can be extracted based on the consumption behavior.So, it is possible to provide more user-oriented multimedia servicebased on the extracted user preference.

Specifically, by recording on which portion of the content therespective consumption behavior such as the normal finish, skimming,skipping, slow play, replay, stop, etc., occurs, a portion speciallyconcerned by the user or a portion unconcerned by the user can beanalogized. Also, user-preferred metadata can be extracted by extractingthe metadata based on the consumption behavior.

The normal finish data 110 is information on a flag for recordingwhether the content is viewed to the end, and the skimmed data 111 isprovided for recording a section of the selected content that has passedby the skimmed operation.

The normal finish data 110 is recorded only whether the normal finish iseffected or not (i.e., ‘0’ or ‘1’).

The skipped data 112 is provided for recording a section of the selectedcontent that has skipped without viewing by the skipped operation, andthe replay data 113 is provided for recording a section of the contentthat has repeatedly viewed using the function of rewind and so on.

The slow play data 114 is provided for recording a section that hasviewed more slowly and thoroughly than a normal speed using the slowplay function and so on. The stopped data 115 is provided for recordingthe stop position in case that the viewing of the content is stoppedwithout finishing the viewing, wherein only the stop position isrecorded as a stop position designator.

In the skimmed data 111, skipped data 112, replay data 113, and slowplay data 114, the start and end of the corresponding section may berecorded, or the start of the section and length of the section from itsstart point may be recorded.

In case that the play is restarted to pass through previous stop point,the stop point is deleted from the stopped data 115. If the play isstopped at a new position, this new position is recorded in the stoppeddata 115, while if the play is finished to the end, the normal finishflag is set and the stopped data is deleted at the same time.

At this time, the normal finish data 110 indicates whether the user hasalready viewed the content, and thus a negative preference can beextracted using the metadata of the unconcerned section stored in theskimmed data 111 and the skipped data 112.

Also, the section recorded in the replay data 113 and the slow play data114 is judged to the section that the user was concerned, and it usedfor extracting a positive preference using the metadata of the section.

This preference extraction data creates the environment that can provideuser-oriented service based on the user preference.

The user history of FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 have either the data of theconsumption type of the multimedia content provided to the user or thedata of the consumption behavior of the multimedia content provided tothe user, or both of them.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the multimedia service system performing theintellectual property management with respect to the multimedia contentusing the user history data (i.e., consumption type), in case where theuser history has the consumption type data of the multimedia content.The system includes a consumption type data and a permitted consumptiontype, and also includes a control unit for controlling the consumptionof the program (i.e., content) by comparing the consumption type datawith the permitted consumption type.

This system construction can be also applied to the case that theintellectual property right with respect to the multimedia content isprotected using the user history data (i.e., consumption behavior), incase where the user history has the consumption behavior data of themultimedia content.

As described above, the consumption type data 401 includes a simple viewdata 402, recording data 403, backup data 404, transfer data 405, andprogram identifier 406.

The permitted consumption type 407 is provided for permitting theconsumption of the multimedia content based on the intellectualproperty, and includes a permitted number of simple view 408, permittednumber/type of recording 409, permitted number/type of backup 410,permitted number/type of transfer 411, and program identifier 412.

A program consumption control unit 400 compares the consumption typedata 401 and the permitted consumption type 407, and the consumptiontype is restricted to the permitted type in accordance with a result ofcomparison.

If the user receives the corresponding content from the content provideralong with the information such as the permitted number of simple view,permitted number of recording, permitted number of backup, and permittednumber of transfer, and the permitted format ofrecording/backup/transfer, and if predetermined number of times isapplied for each permitted consumption behavior, the receiver can stopthe consumption of the corresponding behavior using the consumptionbehavior data as shown in FIG. 1. Also, the user can easily confirm thewhole number of consumption permitted to him/her and the permittednumber of consumption. By this method, the consumption of the contentthat is not desired by the content provider can be controlled, and theprotection of the intellectual property can be achieved.

The program consumption control unit 400 may be a server or client.

Meanwhile, the user history based multimedia service system according tothe present invention manages the consumption type data and consumptionbehavior data for each user, manages the consumption type data andconsumption behavior data grouped for each content, and preserves acontent reference for each group.

At this time, the content reference uses an independent ID regardless ofa storage position of the content such as a digital object ID (DOI),content reference ID (CRID) of a content ID forum (CIDf), and UMID of anSMPTE, and thus it always enables an unlimited access to the content orrelated metadata. Accordingly, if needed for the extraction of the userpreference data, the metadata that is not provided in the history datacan be brought from an external or internal storage device.

As described above, the user history based multimedia service systemaccording to the present invention can perform an effective anddiscriminated intellectual property right management for each multimediacontent by recording the user's consumption type and consumptionbehavior of the multimedia content for each user, and enables auser-oriented multimedia service by extracting user preferenceinformation for the multimedia content from the user's consumptionpattern.

Also, the present invention enables the user-oriented service andachieves the above-described purpose independently of a server since ituses the user-oriented information, departing from the existingserver-oriented user management.

Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have beendisclosed for illustrative purposes, those skilled in the art willappreciate that various modifications, additions and substitutions arepossible, without departing from the scope and spirit of the inventionas disclosed in the accompanying claims.

1. A system for processing a hierarchical user history data structureembodied in a machine readable medium, the system comprising: aprocessor configured to process data in the hierarchical user historydata structure; and a memory for storing the processed data, wherein thehierarchical user history data structure comprises: a user informationelement including information for identifying a user; and a first useraction list and a separate, second user action list that are respectivefirst and second structural elements at the same level in thehierarchical user history data structure for separately recordingdifferent first and second user action types of the user's multimediaconsumption, wherein the first user action list records prior or currentuser actions corresponding to the first user action type that includesplaying content from multimedia streams and the second user action listrecords prior or current user actions corresponding to the second useraction type that includes skipping content portions of the multimediastreams, each of the first and second user action lists including arespective list of user action data items, wherein each user action dataitem in the first user action list includes a content referenceidentifier of a multimedia program which has been played by the user,and wherein each user action data item in the second user action listincludes a content reference identifier that identifies a multimediaprogram a portion of which has been skipped by the user, and whereineach content reference identifier enables access to content relatedmetadata that is not provided in the hierarchical user history datastructure.
 2. The system of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical userhistory data structure further comprises data protection information forindicating whether the user desires to keep information in the useraction data items for the user's private use.
 3. The system of claim 2,wherein each of the user action data items further includes an operationtime indicating when the corresponding user action took place.
 4. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein the hierarchical user history data structureis suitable for use in a portable storage medium.
 5. The system of claim4, wherein the portable storage medium includes a smart card.
 6. Amethod implemented by an apparatus for describing user history data in ahierarchical user history data structure embodied in a machine readablemedium, the apparatus including a processor and associated memoryconfigured to process the hierarchical user history data structure, themethod comprising: describing user information in a user informationelement of the hierarchical user history data structure for identifyinga user; and describing at least consumption or behavior data in a firstuser action list and a separate, second user action list that arerespective first and second structural elements located at the samelevel in the hierarchical user history data structure for separatelyrecording different first and second user action types of the user'smultimedia consumption or behavior, the consumption or behavior dataincluding at least one consumption or behavior type, wherein the firstuser action list records prior or current user actions corresponding tothe first user action type that includes playing content from multimediastreams and the second user action list records prior or current useractions corresponding to the second user action type that includesskipping content portions of the multimedia streams, wherein each of thefirst and second user action lists includes a respective list of useraction data items, wherein each user action data item in the first useraction list includes a content reference identifier of a multimediaprogram which has been played by the user and wherein each user actiondata item in the second user action list includes a content referenceidentifier that identifies a multimedia program a portion of which hasbeen skipped by the user and wherein each content reference identifierenables access to content related metadata that is not provided in thehierarchical user history data structure.
 7. The method of claim 6,further comprising describing a data protection flag for indicatingwhether the user desires to keep the consumption or behavior data forthe user's private use.
 8. The method of claim 6, wherein thehierarchical user history data structure is suitable for use in aportable storage medium.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the portablestorage medium includes a smart card.
 10. A method implemented by anapparatus for describing user action history in a hierarchical userhistory data structure embodied in a machine readable medium, theapparatus including a processor and associated memory configured toprocess the hierarchical user history data structure, the methodcomprising: describing a first user action list and a separate, seconduser action list that are respective first and second structuralelements at the same level in the hierarchical user history datastructure for separately recording different first and second useraction types of a user's multimedia consumption, wherein the first useraction list records prior or current user actions corresponding to thefirst user action type that includes playing content from multimediastreams and the second user action list records prior or current useractions corresponding to the second user action type that includesskipping content portions of the multimedia streams, each of the firstand second user action lists including a respective list of user actiondata items recording the prior or current actions of the user; anddescribing user actions in the user action data items, wherein each useraction is associated in the corresponding user action item with anoperation time describing a time when the action took place or aduration thereof, and a content reference identifier providing a uniqueidentifier of a program associated with said action and enabling accessto multimedia content related metadata that is not provided in thehierarchical user history data structure.
 11. The method of claim 10,further comprising describing an automatic update flag for settingwhether the user action history is automatically updated.
 12. Thestructure of claim 11, further comprising describing a data protectionflag for indicating whether the user desires to keep the user actionhistory for said user's private use.
 13. The method of claim 10, whereinthe hierarchical user history data structure is suitable for use in aportable storage medium.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein theportable storage medium includes a smart card.